1:1 Laptop Program Update

Penn Manor High School is approaching the day when every student has access to a personal laptop for learning. In preparation for our January 2014 building-wide 1:1 computing program, a pilot group of 90 students are testing district-issued laptops in school and at home. For the past two months, the pilot group, comprised of Open Campus students and others who are enrolled in online classes, have adopted the laptop as their primary scholarly device.

Student feedback is key to the program; student experiences help us refine installed software and test the laptops in various classroom situations. Based on student input, several changes will be implemented. One example is the neoprene case originally selected for the pilot laptops. It has proven to be less resilient than expected, and the IT Team is investigating a tougher case alternative. Additionally, several software image changes are being implemented to make the laptops more efficient and easier to use. Read more about the pilot program kickoff on PennPoints.

Pilot computers are the Acer TravelMate TMB 113 series laptops running Ubuntu, a flavor of the Linux operating system. The Acer/Ubuntu combination is a perfect blend of computing capability, battery life and software flexibility. Bugs and kinks have been minimal, and students have remarked positively on the laptop’s compact size. Given a successful device pilot, we have selected the Acer TravelMate with Ubuntu as our standard 1:1 program device.

The student help desk team is a vital component of the pilot program. Providing peer support to fellow students, the student team solves technical issues, prepares and configures laptops, trains peers and prepares documentation and help guides. You’ll find a great example of their work on the 1:1 help blog: http://blogs.pennmanor.net/1to1/. PennPoints, recently posted an excellent article on the student help desk.

Penn Manor High School teachers have participated in technology professional development for the past several years. To amplify their exiting skills and help build additional instructional capacity ahead of the full 1:1 program, teachers are participating in 2-3 days of educational technology sessions on a number of new and old topics such as, Open Educational Resources, Moodle, curating content with Evernote, file and resource sharing, student writing/blogging, LibreOffice, screencasting, Google Apps, and document annotation. Technology professional development sessions are scheduled either after school or during full day trainings.

To keep parents informed of the program, three evening parent information sessions are scheduled. The first session was held on Thursday October 24th. Dr. Gale and I provided an overview of 1:1 program’s instructional goals and answered parent questions for nearly two hours. The next two sessions are scheduled for 7PM on November 20th and December 11th and will be held in the Penn Manor High School library. Registration is not required.

During the second semester, the full program will begin and all 1,700 Penn Manor High School students will receive a laptop. The IT Team is on-schedule for a full program launch by the end of January 2014. However, it is critical to keep in mind that our program is not about the device; it is for and about our students. Excitement is building as we move toward our goal of empowering all Penn Manor High School students with a laptop to explore personal passions such as creative design, engineering, programming, writing and music.

Finally, a big thank-you to PM High School Technology Specialist, Alex Lagunas. Alex has been working tirelessly to prepare for the pilot and guide the student help desk team while simultaneously supporting day-to-day building technology needs and staff help requests. While juggling his many tasks and projects, Alex always remains cool, calm and collected; I’m fortunate to have him on the Penn Manor IT team.